British professor refuses request to write article for Israeli
journal

By Tamara Traubmann

Haaretz

Iyyar 21, 5766

A
British professor has refused a request to write an article for an
academic journal funded by Israeli universities.

Professor Richard
Seaford, from the University of Exeter in England, refused to write the
article, saying he was taking part in the academic boycott of Israel.

"Alas, I am unable to accept your kind invitation, for reasons
that you may not like. I have, along with many other British academics,
signed the academic boycott of Israel, in the face of the brutal and
illegal expansionism and the slow-motion ethnic cleansing being practiced
by your government," Seaford wrote to Dr. Daniella Dueck. Dueck, a
lecturer at Bar Ilan University and a member of the Scripta Classica
Israelica editorial board had requested that Seaford write a book review
for the journal.

Scripta Classica Israelica is published by the
Israeli Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies and is distributed
to subscribers in Israel and abroad.

Seaford, the head of the
Department of Classics and Ancient History at Exeter University, told
Haaretz that the academic boycott "is just a small contribution to the
long-term raising of international consciousness which represents the only
hope for an eventual just peace in the Middle East. In this respect, there
is a parallel with the academic boycott of Apartheid South
Africa."

When asked why boycotts specifically target academics,
Seaford said, "Though many charges of racism have been directed against
Israeli universities, we do not want academics of all people to be
boycotted: We would be delighted if there were other boycotts."

On
May 27-29, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher
Education (NATFHE) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will debate a
proposal in favor of an academic boycott against Israel.

The
International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom (IAB), established at
Bar Ilan University to take action against academic boycotts, published a
statement Thursday in which it "warns that a silent boycott between
British and Israeli academics is already taking place," and called on an
anti-boycott network of some 500 academics around the world to oppose
it.

In March, the London Jewish Chronicle reported that U.K.
magazine Dance Europe refused to publish an article on Sally Ann Freeland,
an Israeli choreographer, and her dance company. The magazine conditioned
the publication of the article on an explicit declaration by Freeland
against the occupation, which she refused to make.

The academic
boycott began in the United States and Europe during the first intifada,
and intensified in 2002 after Operation Defensive Shield, during which
Israel Defense Forces troops occupied West Bank cities.

The
boycott movement began in response to a request by Palestinian
organizations, such as The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel, an umbrella organization for dozens of
Palestinian NGOs.

An attempt is made almost annually in the U.K. to
formally instate an academic boycott on Israel, through official decisions
by lecturers' unions.

The proposal slated to be discussed later
this month by NATFHE differs from previous ones. According to the
proposal, the current boycott will deal not only with the occupation, but
also with discrimination against different populations in Israel, mainly
in the field of education.

The proposal encourages academics to
"consider the appropriateness of a boycott of those that do not publicly
dissociate themselves" from discriminatory and unequal
policies.

According to the IBA, "Such boycotts have no place in the
academic community. Scholarship and research, and their expression in the
open and free exchange of ideas, are among the foundations of
civilization, and without them there can be no true advancement of human
knowledge."